NAR RPR And Xceligent Are You Paying Attention? The Indiana Commercial Board Of Realtors Takes A Stance.

A couple of weeks back I wrote a little article in which I asked Doug Curry the CEO of Xceligent 5 Simple Questions. To this date he has yet to respond. Now after all it was right in the middle of the holiday season and I am sure he will at sometime in the future respond in some way shape or form.

As simple fate would have it just a day after I posted up the article I received a very interesting email from (ICBR) The Indiana Commercial Board of Realtors. This was a complete coincidence. As many of you know I just post up whatever is in my head at the time.

I always open and read the email alerts and news provided to me from ICBR. I have of course met with and had conversations with many of the staff and members. They are some of the most professional and reputable people in commercial real estate and I am proud to be associated with them.

What follows below is the entire email and position paper from ICBR. They are reposted in their entirety with permission from The Indiana Commercial Board of Realtors

The Email.

Dear member,

Recently, NAR introduced two new benefits for its members that have come with some controversy in the commercial real estate industry. As one of our valued members, the ICBR Board of Directors felt it was important to share what these benefits entail with you, and our current stance on both issues.

CommercialSearch.comNAR recently announced its partnership with Xceligent, a commercial information exchange (CIE) provider, as a part of Xceligent’s expansion into providing a national public marketing platform for commercial real estate listings. Xceligent purchased eProperty Data from Second Century Ventures, the strategic investment arm of NAR, and in turn eliminating CommercialSource.com.

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent Consent Decree regarding the CoStar and LoopNet merger provided several specific conditions to create competition in the marketplace. Xceligent, in partnership with NAR, presented a plan to the FTC that would allow for quick expansion to compete with CoStar/LoopNet. This plan includes the creation of a global trading platform for commercial real estate information, populated by data from local boards across the nation, called CommercialSearch.com.

As a CIE (Commercial Information Exchange), Xceligent currently operates in 30 U.S. markets and is the only other multi-market competitor to CoStar in each of those cities. With this new expansion plan, and its partnership with NAR, Xceligent will reach 10 to 12 additional major markets per year, ending with 90 new metro areas within 48 months.

ICBR’s CIE, ICREX, previously provided active property listing data to the NAR-owned CommercialSource.com. Because the new CommercialSearch.com is not owned by NAR, but owned by the for-profit Xceligent, our board does not feel comfortable with the new arrangement. At this time, in an effort to preserve and protect our ICREX data, ICBR will not participate in CommercialSearch.com.

For more information on the partnership between NAR and Xceligent, and the ICBR stance, See Below.

RPR
RPR (REALTORS Property Resource) has been engaged in a beta testing process over the last few months. While NAR is nearly ready to roll out the product to the commercial industry, ICBR is taking a more cautious examination of the product and will be bringing the membership up to speed in the coming months.

After reaching out to many of our peers across the country, we have found that ICBR is not alone in its position on these two NAR initiatives. We work to preserve and protect our members and their data in order to ensure the most accurate, up-to-date data available for the state of Indiana. As always, we welcome your feedback, questions or concerns. Please let us know if we can provide you with more information.

Sincerely,

Jeff Beachum, CAEICBR Executive Director

The Stance.

What is CommercialSearch.com?

CommercialSearch.com is the national public marketing platform that resulted from a partnership between NAR and Xceligent.

To provide a commercial real estate information service, NAR recently announced Xceligent as a new REALTOR Benefits® Partner and a competitive alternative to LoopNet and CoStar. As a part of this, Xceligent purchased ePropertyData (provider of CommercialSource.com) from Second Century Ventures (the strategic investment arm of NAR). All property listings previously on the NAR-owned CommercialSource.com will be transferred to the Xceligent-owned CommercialSearch.com (with a signed listing agreement from participating local boards).

Were local boards consulted during the formation of this partnership?

After the partnership formed with Xceligent, ICBR was notified. However, we were not consulted during the formation of the partnership.

Is ICBR participating in CommercialSearch.com?

ICBR has elected to preserve the integrity of the data and property listings in ICREX. The Xceligent-owned CommercialSearch is a direct competitor of our ICREX provider, Catylist. Sending our members’ data to a direct competitor is not in the best interest of our members or our local industry.

ICBR previously participated in the NAR-owned CommercialSource.com by giving ICREX subscribers the option to send listings to the national platform. As members of NAR, ICBR felt this was an appropriate member benefit, however this option is no longer available.

Do other boards have the same concerns?

ICBR has reached out to a number of commercial boards across the country – all current members of NAR. Many of these associations have similar concerns regarding the ownership of CommercialSearch.com, and how this initiative will compete with our local CIEs. Many boards have joined ICBR in rejecting the listing agreement with Xceligent.CommercialSearch.com, and how this initiative will compete with our local CIEs.

Is CommercialSearch.com coming to Indiana?

Xceligent is planning to launch 10-12 US markets per year until they have completed coverage of the top 65 metro areas in the first 36 months. This will include Indianapolis. In Xceligent’s fourth year, they plan to reach 90 metro areas.

ICBR expects to see Xceligent in Indiana, much like previous efforts from CoStar and LoopNet. ICBR members are likely to receive phone calls asking for information from Xceligent, or CommercialSearch.com.

Is CommercialSearch.com available now?

CommercialSearch.com was scheduled to launch in early fall 2012. At this time, the site has not launched.*11/13/12

Well Hello.

That ladies and gentlemen is calling it like you see it.

I applaud the ICBR for doing their due diligence and making a clearly defined statement.

They have also stated that they will continue to evaluate the “benefits” that are offered to their membership.

How far have we come ? How far are we going?

Now the debates and positions will continue.

Open data transparency level playing field sharing and competition are the sexy buzzwords.

ICBR has acknowledged that other services will be available in their marketplace.

It seems they have decided that the true and accurate data that is created by their membership has real value and is worth protecting.

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